Love Hurts: she takes being rejected by Seth hard, considering that she’d been crushing on him for months before the incident, and only finally begins getting over him and moving on emotionally after about a month of moping.
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Meet Cute: Chris and Julia first met near a dumpster.
Old Friend: she was very close with Lucy throughout middle school, back when they were both considered semi-popular, and have still remained good friends despite somewhat drifting apart.
Only Friend: She once considered Lydia her only friend, and for a while, Julia was hers.
Put on a Bus: to Italy to study abroad for a year after graduating high school, which devastates Lydia, who was hoping she and Julia could study at Berkley together.
Selective Obliviousness: Julia is in constant denial of the feelings she’s always had toward Chris, even throughout the period she was crushing on Seth Oliver, although she finally comes to terms with them * the day she and Chris are coincidentally trapped together in the school’s library, which allows some Unresolved Sexual Tension to surface.
Shared Family Quirks: both she and her mother pinch their noses when they smell trouble coming up and share a love of languages and literature.
The Bus Came Back: she became homesick during the time she spent studying in Florence and fell into a depression, which led her to move back to the states shortly after her first semester.
The Confidant: to pretty much everyone, especially Lydia.
The Smart Girl: Julia is generally seen as among the most studious of the teenage cast and is often remarked as having “her head always tucked in a book.”
Lydia: Don’t you get it, Jules? We’re seventeen years old, and prom is only about two months away. If I’m unable to finally find a date that genuinely cares enough to take me, I might as well just crawl back under the rock I came from and classify myself a hermit. I’m sick of being so goddamn… frumpy…and unlovable. Can’t you understand that?
Julia: …Well, that’s just about the stupidest thing I’ve heard yet. You’re seriously beating yourself up over some stupid onetime event that involves dressing yourself in some itchy, overpriced gown to go with a horny idiot and stand around in some clammy ballroom eating stale potato chips while swaying halfheartedly to bad music from a random garage band nobody’s even heard of? Please.
Lydia Calandra
All Love Is Unrequited she’s hopelessly in love with Keegan, who sadly doesn’t reciprocate.
Brilliant, but Lazy: she’s very intelligent and perceptive, but procrastinates on long term assignments and has severe test anxiety, mainly because she doesn’t study sufficiently.
Desperately Craves Affection: she feels perpetually starved of genuine affection and intimacy and sometimes wishes she could relate more to her peers and even family members.
Horrible Judge of Character: she cares way, way too much over what people think of her and tends to put people into boxes, which has led to plenty of misconceptions throughout the series.
I Am Not Pretty: She considers herself unattractive by comparison to Rebecca and Abigail.
In Love with Love: she’s quite the romantic and is desperately seeking a boyfriend for much of the series.
Love Hungry: she desperately wants to be in love and claims at one point that she wants to experience the same feelings Julia and Chris do whenever they’re together, yet is continually either flat-out rejected by boys or left victim to unrequited love.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness she has a somewhat more advanced vocabulary than many of her same-aged peers, which occasionally surfaces and tends to confuse the people around her. This trait character trait however is most evident when it comes to her writing.
Silly Rabbit, Cynicism Is for Losers! : she starts to abandon her narrow view of the world and care less about what others think once she starts interacting more Julia and other people her age.
You Say Tomato: she speaks with a slight lisp and occasionally stumbles over certain words.
Claudia Malave
Allergic to Love: she faints at the mere prospect of writing someone a love letter and still can’t quite get over Jordy’s suicide.
Book Dumb: she hates to study and earns mediocre grades at best, but is actually quite smart and capable when she sets her mind to it. She’s arguably one of the more levelheaded cast members as well.
Bratty Teenage Daughter: Toward Sylvia at the start of the series, although their relationship gradually improves.
Broken Bird: becomes this as she tries to cope with having been sexually abused as a child, and later with Jordy’s suicide.
But I Can't Be Pregnant!: Claudia’s secretly deals with a pregnancy scare about a week after sleeping with Gabriel, after missing her period and feeling nauseous during a class presentation.
Defrosting Ice Queen: a major portion of her Character Development revolves around this.
Does Not Like Men: she seems this way at the very beginning of the series, although most of it is rooted from a very traumatic experience she underwent in her childhood.
Don't You Dare Pity Me! : Claudia struggles considerably with the suicide of her close friend and presumable crush Jordy, and is rather reluctant to accept people’s comfort when she becomes stoic and withdrawn.
Eating Lunch Alone: she usually takes advantage of sitting alone at the school’s steps working on her artwork during her lunch period.
Friend to All Children: she loves babysitting her younger cousins and seems to have a special fondness and talent with children in general.
She's All Grown Up according to Marisa, toward the end of the series, seeing as she becomes significantly more open, sociable and optimistic around others in later seasons.
Sugar-and-Ice Personality: she’s very cold, sarcastic, and distant around those she doesn’t know well due to trust issues, but has a sweeter, softer side for the people she truly cares about.
True Art Is Angsty: In-universe. Her mother states that even as a young child, Claudia would’ve rather “drawn a witch under the moonlight than a princess.”
Uptight Loves Wild: Gabriel is a spontaneous free-spirit and dancer with a wry sense of humor who just doesn’t give a damn what people think of him, while Claudia is a brooding, cynical artist who knows little about life outside her traumatic past.
Hot for Teacher: she becomes attracted to Caleb, a childhood friend working as a student teacher at one point, which leads to their near engagement in a Student-Teacher Romance.
Missing Mom: her mother is implied to have passed away a few years before the start of the series.
Passionate Sports Girl: Practices a wide variety of sports throughout the year besides soccer, including skiing, surfing, snowboarding, and cross country running.
Plucky Girl: she faced her sister’s cancer diagnosis, the death of her mother at a young age, her best friend’s dealing with anorexia, the suicide of another close friend, her father’s suffering a heart attack, and almost getting involved in a car accident with bravery and a smile.
Rapunzel Hair: Her most noticeable trait throughout the series.
Small Town Boredom: subverted, considering that she disliked the small town she grew up in back in Maine as a child and constantly dreamed of visiting the big city, namely Los Angeles.
Sweet Tooth: Her favorite foods include cinnamon rolls, blueberry biscuits, and peach cobbler.
Teen Genius: she often has a quick grasp on things and is an ace when it comes to her schoolwork, so much that it earns her the title of the senior class's valedictorian.
Abusive Parents: she has a distant relationship with her mother, whom she quarrels frequently and interacts with minimally.
All Guys Want Cheerleaders: her cheerleading social status, as well as her inexplicably large bust attracts a lot of unwanted popularity and male attention.
Clingy Jealous Girl: becomes this very often with both friends and crushes alike.
Cuteness Proximity: leaving a cute baby animal of any sort in sight will temporarily make her IQ shoot down a couple of points.
Driven by Envy despite their deep friendship, she is implied to continuously feel second best to Elly, who she strives to outdo both academically and athletically.
Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: she’s only about 5 ft. 1 with high heels compared to Demetri, who’s 6 ft. 1.
Intelligence = Isolation: she’s occasionally a little shy, but very smart and reflective, which sometimes brings her difficulty in relating to her peers.
Living Emotional Crutch: she claims at one point that her friendship with Elly is the only thing that keeps her sane.
Mother Nature, Father Science: gender reversed, in that while her mother is a rational, no-nonsense physician who leads a steady job working long-shifts at a nearby hospital, her biological father is a flighty and easygoing, if overly-emotional wildlife biologist who’s engaged in constant travel.
Ms. Imagination: quite the storyteller when she wants to be, and it doesn’t hurt to keep in mind her tendency to exaggerate scenarios.
Naked Freak-Out: a group of rowdy boys pull down her yoga pants in season 1, mortifying her and exposing the fact that she chose to wear a thong underneath.
Shrinking Violet: She was implied to be quite the wallflower during her early elementary school years, yet gradually came out of her shell with the encouragement of Elly.
Reclusive Artist: she’s gets very engrossed in her artwork and often spends long periods sketching away in remote corners.
